Yale University Library Research Guides: HIST 118J: U.S. Immigration Policy: History, Politics, and Activism, 1607-Present: Selected Primary Source Databases

Newspapers and Periodicals

60 Minutes: 1997-2014
Video archive of broadcast television program 60 Minutes.
Access World News
Full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources at the local, regional, national and international level. Coverage from ca. 1982 to present.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995
Approximately 170 periodicals. Click here for title list.
America's Historical Newspapers
This database covers the colonial period to the late 20th c. Most of the content is pre-20th century, but several collections cover the 20th c. and include:
- 20th Century American Newspapers, Series 1-3
- African American Newspapers, Series 1 (1827-1998) and 2 (1835-1956)
- Ethnic American Newspapers, 1799-1971
- Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
* Please note: a link to the new "America's Historical Newspapers" interface is available at the top of the page -- this interface provides an overview of all of the collections in the database and allows you to select multiple databases to search at the same time.
American Indian Newspapers
Films on Demand
This resource provides full-length streaming videos and clips, including newsreels and video news footage. It covers different subject areas, genres and time periods, all drawn from various producers.
Newspapers.com Library Edition
Historical newspaper archive providing online access to thousands of historical newspapers, dating from the early 1700s into the early 2000s.
Nexis Uni
Source for information on U.S. and international companies and executives. Includes print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs; local, regional, national and international newspapers; legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790. Replaces LexisNexis academic.
* The "Guided Search" (rather than searching "All Nexis Uni") will help to narrow down your search results.
Opinion Archives
Provides full-text searchable archives for journals of opinion, such as American Spectator, Commentary, Dissent, Harper's Magazine, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Weekly Standard, etc.
Press Reader
Provides interactive, digital access to nearly 7,000 newspapers and magazines globally. Coverage generally for the last 90 days.
ProQuest News and Newspapers
A collection of several sets of news sources, newspapers, and journals -- contemporary and historical. Includes:
- Alt-PressWatch
- Ethnic NewsWatch
- GenderWatch
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers
- ProQuest Recent Newspapers
- U.S. Hispanic Newsstream
- U.S. Major Dailies (1980 to present, updated daily)
Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Women's Magazine Archive
Coverage from late 19th c. to 2005 for the following magazines:
- Better Homes and Gardens
- Chatelaine
- Cosmopolitan
- Essence
- Good Housekeeping
- Ladies' Home Journal
- Parents
- Redbook
- Seventeen
- Town & Country
- Women's International Network News
- Woman's Day

Digital Archives

Some of these collections include secondary and reference sources:

America's Historical Imprints
America's historical imprints is a collection of searchable monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and ephemera related to American history. The collection is searchable by genre, subject, author, history of printing, place of publication, and language.
Archives Unbound
Provides access to 205 digitized manuscript collections. Click on the "Collections" link for an overview. Filter by "Topic" in order to browse the subject areas that are covered.
Please note: the archival finding aids and other original archival descriptions are often not included in these collections, so this can be a challenging database to use. Please reach out for assistance if any of the collections are of interest or relevant to your research.
Indigenous Peoples of North America
A set of 52 collections spanning the 17th to 20th c. Includes manuscripts, rare books and monographs, newspapers, periodicals, census records, legal documents, maps, drawings and sketches, oral histories, photos, and videos. Click on the "Collections" link in the navigation bar for an overview of all 52 collections.
Migration to New Worlds
A collection that contains primary source material recounting immigration from Europe and Asia to the U.S. and other parts of the world. Included are British Colonial Office files on emigration, diaries and travel journals, printed literature, and other materials, supplemented by secondary research aids. Chronological coverage: 1800 to 1924.
ProQuest Civil War Era
Access to original pamphlets and selected regional newspaper titles covering 1840-1865.
ProQuest History Vault
Provides access to primary source, cross-searchable, full-text, full-image documents from ProQuest's University Publications of America (UPA) collection on topics related to 19th and 20th-century U.S. history. Collections are organized into the following modules:
- Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
- Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War
- American Indians and the American West
- American Politics and Society
- International Relations and Military Conflicts
Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice
Slavery, Abolition and Social justice features documents and collections that treat slavery, its legacy and continued existence, and social justice issues related to its legacy. Coverage is from 1490 to 2008, and materials include original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps, and images.
Women's Studies Archive
Archival materials documenting the evolution of feminism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and women’s political activism in areas such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism. Click on the "Collections" link for an overview of 15 collections.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors.

Government Information and Legal Resources

Hein Online
A key resource for legal research and government information. Includes:
- Law Journal Library
- Federal Register Library
- Code of Federal Regulations
- U.S. Supreme Court Library
- Treaties and Agreements Library
- U.S. Attorney General Opinions
- Legal Classics
- U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
- U.S. Statutes at Large
- U.S. Presidential Library
The Making of Modern Law. American Civil Liberties Union Papers. Part I, 1912-1990
The link here goes to the catalog record for part one, but the "Online database" link goes to the home page for all three parts of the collection to which Yale researchers have access:
"Southern Regional Office Files [1945-1990]"
"The Roger Baldwin Years, 1912-1950"
"Years of Expansion,1950-1990"
The Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1950-1980
The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978
Nexis Uni
Source for information on U.S. and international companies and executives. Includes print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs; local, regional, national and international newspapers; legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790. Replaces LexisNexis academic.
* The "Guided Search" (rather than searching "All Nexis Uni") will help to narrow down your search results.
ProQuest Congressional Publications
Key resource for finding Congressional documents, such as the Congressional Record, Hearings, House and Senate Documents and Reports (i.e., U.S. Congressional Serial Set), and more.
Social Explorer
Social explorer provides access to census and demographic data. The online interface lets users create maps and reports to illustrate, analyze, and understand demography and social change. Included is the entire U.S. census history from 1790 to 2010, the American Community Survey (ACS) from 2005 to 2012, the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) from 1980 to 2010, InfoGroup data on religious congregations in the US for 2009 and 2010, and carbon emissions data for 2002 from the Vulcan Project.

Microfilm Resources

Many historical materials (newspapers, reports, etc.) remain accessible only in "microform" -- the generic term for microfilm and other micro-photographic technologies that became popular for preserving historical materials in the middle of the 20th c., and which remain in use today. Below are links to some materials that may be of interest. To access these materials, write to askyalelibrary@yale.edu and include the link to the catalog record and any specific notes on which reels you would like to consult (e.g., reel numbers, years of publication). Library staff will retrieve the reels and place them on hold for you in Bass Library, where staff will also be available to assist you with using the microform readers that are currently located there:

Immigration Special Studies
Variety of reports and other materials in five series, covering the years 1969-2003.
"Research Collections in American Immigration" Series

Link to website where PDFs of many of the microfilm guides for these collections can be found and accessed.

HIST 118J: U.S. Immigration Policy: History, Politics, and Activism, 1607-Present: Selected Primary Source Databases

Newspapers and Periodicals

Digital Archives

Government Information and Legal Resources

Microfilm Resources

Site Navigation

Yale's Libraries